Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “healthy”

wp.org orders by popularity, so a plugin a host bundled onto millions of sites, or a big-brand one that's slow and mediocre, can sit at the top. Our ranking is built to answer a different question: which of these is actually worth installing. How this works →

For “healthy”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 16 of the top 20.

wp.org search ranks on

Install count (uncapped), the raw star average, freshness, and support. Popularity dominates, so the biggest install base usually wins regardless of how it got there.

We add

A cap on the install boost, volume-weighted ratings, and signals wp.org can't see: whether the install base is organic or host-pushed, and its risk of being pulled.

Ranked above its merit

BMI Adult & Kid Calculator shows at wp.org #3 but places #13 on merit, a gap of 10 places. Its 700+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 2 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

FluentCommunity – Ultra-Fast High-Performance Social Network, Community, LMS & Online Courses places #8 on merit, 4.8★ from 96 reviews, but shows at wp.org #19. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Easy MCP AI – Connect Claude to WordPress: MCP Server for ChatGPT & AI Agents 30K+ · 4.9★ (16) wp.org #2 1 too low 2 Yoco Payments 10K+ · 4.4★ (43) wp.org #5 ↓1 3 too low 3 WP Search with Algolia 7K+ · 4.5★ (24) wp.org #4 ↑3 1 too low 4 404 to 301 – Redirect Manager, 301 Redirection, 404 Error Logs & 404 Monitoring 100K+ · 4.7★ (321) wp.org #10 6 too low 5 Stream – Activity Log & Audit Trail 70K+ · 4.3★ (76) wp.org #7 ↓1 2 too low 6 Widgets for Booking.com Reviews 9K+ · 4.9★ (65) wp.org #9 3 too low 7 H Healthy filenames 100+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #1 6 too high 8 FluentCommunity – Ultra-Fast High-Performance Social Network, Community, LMS & Online Courses 8K+ · 4.8★ (96) wp.org #19 11 too low 9 Broken Link Checker by AIOSEO – Find & Fix Broken Internal, External & Video Links 200K+ · 3.8★ (87) wp.org #14 ↓2 5 too low 10 SEO Engine – Smart SEO with AI, Schema & Redirection for WordPress 1K+ · 4.9★ (48) wp.org #18 ↓1 8 too low 11 Proxy Cache Purge 50K+ · 4.4★ (26) wp.org #12 ↑1 1 too low 12 Flexible PDF Coupons – Gift Cards & Vouchers for WooCommerce 2K+ · 4.7★ (31) wp.org #17 ↓1 5 too low 13 BMI Adult & Kid Calculator 700+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #3 10 too high 14 Auto Tag Creator – Automatic Tags for Posts and WooCommerce Products 1K+ · 4.5★ (4) wp.org #6 ↓1 8 too high 15 Check for Broken Links – Broken Link Checker & SEO Suite 2K+ · 4.0★ (6) wp.org #8 ↑4 7 too high 16 BitFire Security – Firewall, Malware Scanner, Bot Blocker, Login Protection 300+ · 5.0★ (8) wp.org #23 ↓1 7 too low 17 Bulk Delete Users by Email 100+ · 4.1★ (10) wp.org #20 ↓2 3 too low 18 FluentAffiliate – Affiliate Program Management Suite, Affiliates Manager 2K+ · 4.6★ (7) wp.org #21 ↓1 3 too low 19 Easy Testimonial Blocks – Testimonial Grid, Customer Reviews & Star Ratings 1K+ · 4.5★ (2) wp.org #15 4 too high 20 Time-based Revision Cleanup 100+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #24 ↓1 4 too low 21 Dead Link Checker – SEO and 404 error Fix 80+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #11 ↓3 10 too high 22 Glow: maintenance & support management for agencies 800+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #13 ↓3 9 too high 23 CI BMI Calculator 90+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #16 ↓1 7 too high 24 Sales Counter For WooCommerce 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #22 ↓1 2 too high

Merit ranking caps the install boost at 1M (wp.org leaves it uncapped), replaces the raw star average with a volume-weighted Bayesian score and a Wilson lower bound, and keeps wp.org's own freshness and compatibility decays. Method from the plugin-directory source; see Meta Trac #8298. Positions are tracked daily from the first visit to a keyword, so the small arrows show movement since tracking began.